The invention relates to an auto glass pane which is installed directly into a window frame by means of a hardening adhesive substance. The glass pane includes mechanical auxiliary means for positioning the glass pane within the window frame and for retaining the glass pane in its final position until the hardening of the adhesive substances is completed. The invention furthermore relates to a method for inserting the glass pane into the window opening of a motor vehicle body.
In the case of the so-called direct pane installment in the window opening of an auto body, the installation of the glass pane, for example of the windshield pane or of the rear-wall pane, takes place through direct cementation. With the aid of an extrusion nozzle, a strip of adhesive material is applied onto the peripheral area of the glass pane and the glass pane is inserted directly into the window frame of the auto body. The adhesive strip, which is still soft, comes to lie along the entire pane periphery opposite the mounting flange of the window frame and when it hardens, it tightly cements the glass pane directly to the mounting flange.
In the case of direct pane installment, the glass panes have to be accurately positioned within the window frame, so that the gap between the edge of the pane and the window frame groove is uniform along the entire periphery of the glass pane.
However, as long as the strip of adhesive has not yet hardened but can still be plastically deformed, the inserted glass pane does not remain in its initial position within the window frames. Under the influence of its own weight, it has a tendency to sink downward. In order to prevent this, and in order to retain the glass pane in the desired position, particularly in the vertical sense, spacer blocks are inserted between the lower window frame groove and the lower edge of the glass pane. These spacer blocks can be constructed in a wedge-shaped manner, so that the desired gap width can be adjusted by a more or less deep insertion of the wedge. In place of such spacer blocks, which are removed after the adhesive material hardens, one may utilize vertically adjustable range spacers which are rigidly arranged on the frame groove, for example in the form of eccentrically mounted discs, which, if necessary, remain in the window frame groove after the hardening of the adhesive substance.
In the case of form-locked insertion of auto glass panes, in the course of which the glass pane surfaces and the adjacent auto body parts are to blend into one another in a flush manner, owing to the required streamlined form, an additional problem manifests itself due to the fact that the glass panes, which had been bent in the usual manner, display bending tolerances. In order to achieve a flush state, the glass pane, after it has been positioned in the window frame, has to be pressed along its periphery against the mounting flange of the window frame. If necessary, the bending deviations have to be compensated for through these pressing forces. These pressing forces must be applied until the adhesive substance hardens to such an extent, that the cohesive forces of the adhesive substance are of a sufficient order of magnitude to prevent a return of the elastically deformable glass pane to its previous state.
The known and hitherto utilized mechanical auxiliary means for positioning and mounting the auto glass pane in all three dimensions, make the procedure for inserting the glass pane complicated and time consuming.
The present invention is based on the task of creating an auto glass pane and a process for the insertion of an auto glass pane into the window opening of a motor vehicle body, which reduces the required materials and tools as well as the effort and time needed to complete installation.